San Diego: Old Town Mexican Cafe (July 2018)


Old Town Mexican Cafe (July 2018) - Classic Mexican Food, and They Have A/C, Too!

My spouse and I enjoyed lunch and drinks at the Old Town Mexican Café (OTMC) on a Friday afternoon in early July 2018. The restaurant is open daily from 7:00 am until 11:00 pm (with extended closing time of 12:00 midnight on weekends). The restaurant does not appear to accept reservations; however, they will add your name to a waiting list when you arrive and call out when your table is ready.

The Old Town Mexican Café opened in 1977 on San Diego Avenue in Old Town. The street is full of similar Mexican restaurants (and souvenir shops), and it is difficult to choose to dine at one place over another. However, for us it was no contest, because OTMC is one of the rare restaurants that offers some seating in an air-conditioned room, which was necessary on the extremely (and unusually) hot day that we visited. But we would return because the hospitality was great and the food was tasty. 

The restaurant is divided into two distinct spaces: original and newer. The original air-conditioned darker side is divided into two sections. The bar/lounge area offers seating at a long wooden bar or at adjacent high-top tables, whereas the main dining space offers seating at booths and tables with colorful decorative accents. The second brighter (and warmer!) dining area offers semi-patio seating, with a second bar and many tables. The Old Town Mexican Café can also host banquets/events and provide off-site catering services.

As expected, the OTMC serves traditional Mexican cuisine, with a few special dishes such as molcajete, carnitas, pozole, and tamales. Their handmade tortillas are a big draw, and you can watch women making them in the tortilla kitchen at the front of the restaurant, which is also visible from the sidewalk through the large front windows. Most entrée dishes are served with the ubiquitous rice and beans. We ordered flan for dessert, but the bartender was so busy that he forgot to enter it into the computer. By the time we realized that it wasn’t coming, we were ready to depart. (It was easy to forgive him that one small mistake, because he comped us a round of drinks [one beer and a tequila sunrise] to make up for it.)

We enjoyed a traditional Mexican lunch in the air-conditioned comfort of the Old Town Mexican Café.









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